<p>Does the total cost of around $47,000 include my meal plan? Are mean plans limited (can only take certain amount of times) or unlimited (take as many times as I want)? How many weeks does it cover? Does it cover the January and/or summer meals there?</p>
<p>You have to add money to your account above and beyond what you pay for tuition.</p>
<p>MIT's meal plan is a "declining dollars" plan, meaning that you or your parents load money into your account, then you can buy food at campus food places using your MIT ID, just as if it were a debit card. Since it's like this and not really "x meals per week" as at other schools, the money is available at all times and isn't limited to a certain number of weeks or anything.</p>
<p>The dining site which talks about food enrollment is [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/dining/plans/index.html%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/dining/plans/index.html]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>The estimated 46350 cost of attendence includes a budgeted 4350 for meals, although that doesn't mean you'll be using any meal plan. It just means they consider that you have to feed yourself somehow when determining aid.</p>
<p>Right. I haven't paid anything onto any "declining dollars" plan for my son this year, I just send him a budget each month for food. I expect he'll use that money to buy groceries to cook for himself, but I can't stop him from using it at food trucks or Anna's instead. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, I have my parents put in about $200 per month into my TechCash account, and I eat breakfast and lunch on campus every day, plus (lots of) snacks at MacGregor Convenience. I mostly cook for myself (read: my boyfriend cooks for me) for dinner using groceries bought at the Star</a> Market behind Random Hall.</p>
<p>It works out pretty well, and I really like MIT's system -- I can use my money to buy what I want, and I don't have to pay money for dining hall food if I don't want to. (It's like capitalism, only more delicious!) Plus I didn't gain the freshman 15 like all my friends at all-you-can-eat dining hall schools. ;)</p>
<p>thanks! when do i get my Techcash account?</p>
<p>You'll set up TechCash when you get your MIT ID, and you'll get your ID when you arrive on campus.</p>
<p>Can you buy cheap (but good) food anywhere around campus if you get sick of dining hall food? And I'm kind of organic junkie...any relatively inexpensive Whole Foods type stores around?</p>
<p>The Star Market Mollie mentioned above has a ton of Whole Foods-y type food in it: it's a very decent and good-sized market.</p>
<p>Yeah, don't forget that you're in a town where people place a premium on eating healthy. :)</p>
<p>There's also a Trader</a> Joe's within walking distance of campus -- if you haven't ever been to one, it's really cheap with really good food. Hurray! There appear to be three Whole</a> Foods in Cambridge and two in Boston, but I've never been there.</p>
<p>Mootmom is also quite right that the Star Market has a lot more organic and international foods than your average grocery store.</p>
<p>Oh, and there's the Haymarket farmer's market on the weekends -- not organic, but really cheap veggies and fruits. You have to have a little caveat emptor when you go there, but you can get, for instance, a pound of potatoes for a dollar.</p>
<p>As far as buying premade food on campus, the restaurants in the Student Center and around campus provide actual (not dining hall) food -- Anna's Taqueria is a popular restaurant in the Student Center, and Quizno's, Au Bon Pain, and Domino's now accept TechCash as payment. Ooh, and if you like healthy food you should definitely check out the Steam</a> Cafe in building 7.</p>
<p>if you don't live in a dorm w/ a dining hall, can u still enroll in their meal plan? if not, can u still go there to have dinner?</p>
<p>Yes, although "enroll in their meal plan" is not exactly what you're doing. The preferred dining plan is a program in which residents of dining hall dorms are required to pay a set amount of money at the beginning of term in return for a 50% discount on dining hall food at that dorm.</p>
<p>Residents of other dorms are allowed to join the plan, although I'll warn you that it's not worth it unless you're basically planning to eat dinner in that dining hall every night of the term.</p>
<p>You can still go to the dining hall to have dinner whenever you want, regardless of whether or not you are enrolled in the dining hall's preferred dining plan.</p>